At long last, the caverns of Nomad's Land had been emptied out. Lucario felt a little nostalgic as he slowly passed through the desolate corridors and peered into the many hollows, almost missing the presence of Pokémon whose names and functions he could never hope to remember. It was just him now, or rather just him and a handful of Pokémon Zoroark had purposely kept around while she worked out her plan with Celebi. Despite this there still hung a sort of silent determination in the air, a remnant from its previous occupants, but with no occasional tumult to break up the thick atmosphere.
He felt as if this place had changed him a lot. Certainly a considerable amount of time had passed since he first arrived, he thought. A fresh corpse brought back from the brink with the help of Mew and Celebi, a mediator in the successful capture of Pokérus, a failure in his encounter with Darkrai, a drunkard trying to cope with the guilt, a mystery to be tugged around by Brendan, Blue and Red. But most importantly, he had been a friend receiving the necessary support from Celebi, Zerobi and Zoroark during these trying times. He felt obligated to repay them somehow, to show his appreciation that they despite his behavior had not betrayed his trust as Ivy once had.
There they were, in the heart of the cavern's network. Zoroark and Celebi were sitting on the floor in front of numerous scattered papers, Zerobi sitting a little further away. She noticed him and smiled, signaling for him to come over.
"Hey," Lucario said, sitting down next to Zerobi as the other two perked their heads up, "You said you were done, what's the plan?"
Celebi had finally gone back to looking like her old self, verdant and giving off an unmistakably earthy odor which was comparable to sticking two leaves up your nose. Zoroark looked the same as she always did, which is to say, like a man.
"We assemble all of the legendaries, the forces of No Man's Land and destroy Groudon," Zoroark stated bluntly. Lucario looked at Celebi who agreed with a nod.
"That simple? I thought Groudon was basically invincible?" Lucario asked with concern. But he could tell from their stern expressions that they were not looking for creative input.
"Honestly, Celebi here can probably defeat him on her own," Zoroark spoke confidently as Celebi suddenly looked unusually rigid, "But I don't play around with the fate of the world. Not anymore. We will take every precaution possible to improve our chances of success."
Zerobi and Celebi exchanged a quick glance. They were both being unusually quiet.
"If I am to fight Groudon, I will need to recover for a little while longer," Celebi clarified, keeping herself from showing too much hesitation, "Thankfully, I can sense one of my… Associates nearby. I shall ask him to go alert the legendaries while I rest for a bit."
"Associate, huh…?" Lucario repeated while scratching his chin, relieved that they weren't taking any chances but feeling a little let down at the same time, "Great. Do you need me for anything?"
"Yes. Definitively," Zoroark replied quickly before carefully moving a few of the papers aside and shuffling slightly closer, "But first, let me ask you… What were you doing during the months that you were away from Nomad's Land?"
"Uhh! Ah, I, um," Lucario stammered, looking between Zoroark's inquisitive stare and Zerobi's panicked expression.
"He was looking for me!" Zerobi almost shouted, quickly calming herself, "I told him to come find me when he'd sobered up, I needed to go to town and, well, get a few things, like a present for…"
Celebi glared at Zerobi for a moment as she went back to keeping her mouth shut. Zoroark decided to ignore it, Zerobi was of little interest to her at the moment.
"And this led to Lucario coming back with a limp in bloodied rags?" Zoroark asked with a hint of amusement, looking over at a stunned Lucario. He forgot that he had never given a good explanation for that.
"Well, there was this punk that I had to defeat. And another who threw a tree at me," Lucario tried to summarize the events as quickly as possible. Zoroark's eyes blinked as her interest piqued.
"Intriguing," she stated breathlessly, "And when you first arrived at Nomad's Land… Why were you a hairless skinless mess of burnt gore just barely kept alive by two legendaries?"
"I'm telling you, some other creep…" Lucario started before feeling a sense of pride well up inside him, "I mean, the legendary Torana attacked me and I beat her to the ground!"
Zoroark's smile grew wider as she looked over at Celebi, who giggled a little to herself.
"See, Lucario. You are what we like to refer to as a Magnet for Trouble," Zoroark said with a snicker.
"Exactly," Celebi chimed in, "You visited Arceus. Perhaps now your presence simply makes strange things happen?"
"Hey, just wait a minute!" Lucario interrupted, finding himself surprisingly speechless, "I spent… I've spend months without anything happening!"
"It's true! I've seen it!" Zerobi jumped in, remembering all the time they spent traveling and sadly also all of the time he spent drinking. Zoroark shook her head to dispel the snickering and get back to being serious.
"Sorry. Just a funny little observation on my end," she said before fastening her eyes into him, "Truth is, I need someone who I can trust, someone who Celebi can locate easily and someone who won't get beaten and captured on the way. You are the perfect Pokémon for this job."
The shift in tone was unmistakable and Lucario's upper lip stiffened, pride welling up in his chest.
"Well, if you don't mind that I can only guarantee two out three…" Lucario replied in an attempt to feign humility and keep his upper body from exploding, "I accept."
"Excellent, I will set you up with proper transport so no need to worry about running into trouble," Zoroark stated before shifting her gaze towards Zerobi, who had had already elbowed Lucario in the side twice, "I assume you will be coming along?"
"Would you stop agreeing to things before even-" she chided as Lucario winced and toppled over, making her catch a glace of a hopeful look from her sister and sigh out loud, "… Who am I kidding? Count me in."
"Hmm… He should be able to carry you both, unless…" Zoroark muttered just loud enough so they could hear, sizing up Zerobi's body in a manner which she did not take appreciation of.
"You two should go ahead, I will surely catch up before you reach your destination. But for now…" Celebi said as she took off from her seat and flew in front of Zerobi, "… Sis, I need your help with one thing. It's a short trip to meet an old friend."
"You mean that 'associate'? Who is it?" Zerobi asked curiously, trying to hide her excitement. If this even Celebi did not speak its name, it had to be one hell of a Pokémon.
"It is best if I don't say," Celebi admitted as she swooped over the collapsed fight-type, "Lucario, you stay here… I mean, down there."
He responded by rolling slightly to the side and groaning, currently locked in solving the problem of how such scrawny arms could hurt so much. Zerobi tapped him on the foot with a cold claw as a sort of goodbye gesture before he heard her lithe footsteps fade away behind him.
The pain had subsided, but he was so tired that he felt like falling asleep right there on the spot. Rummaging his mind to see if there was any actual reason why not, he suddenly became aware of Zoroark getting to her feet and pacing around the room.
"That reminds me, the Gallade said something about someone visiting your room at night?"
"… Did he now?" Lucario replied drowsily. He had forgotten if he had asked the eccentric actor to keep it a secret or not and was too tired to get angry. Suddenly something pulled at his arm.
"Come," Zoroark said as she dragged him off the floor, "I bet you didn't even examine the area properly. Let us get to the bottom of this."
Thankfully their destination was not far, just one long corridor at the end of which was a room where Lucario had spotted Mew twice now. On the way Zoroark fastened her gaze on the floor, claiming she was looking for stray hairs or unusual markings possibly left behind by a clumsy teleportation. Lucario did the same but found all sorts of abnormal signs, likely from the dozens of Pokémon who had resided here until just recently. Leaves, discolored rocks and spots of Muk gunk which if accidentally stepped in would probably require swift amputation.
"Anything?" Lucario asked after they had made it to the room, watching with building anticipation as Zoroark carefully examined exactly where Mew had been floating that unforgettable night.
"Not a thing," Zoroark said as a sinister smile crept onto her face, "Perfect."
"Well I was sort of hoping for some… Thing…" Lucario muttered as it slowly dawned on him that Zoroark was letting her illusion dissipate. Far more vividly than any dream, the slender figure was beginning to expand in certain areas and retract in others, the chest and waistline changing to the point where even someone like Lucario could tell an immediate difference. Had he not been human at heart, he would have blushed furiously as he witnessed the gorgeous Pokémon that now stood in front of him.
"It would have been inconvenient if someone else really was here," Zoroark snickered as she approached Lucario, but stopped when she noticed he was backing away with a surprised look on his face, "Don't worry, it just so happens I require your assistance with something of the utmost importance."
A million thoughts surged through Lucario's mind. Was this another one of Zoroark's schemes? She hadn't been looking for Mew at all, she had just brought him here so they could be alone. He was trapped, unless he could somehow punch a passage through god know how much stone. He shifted his sight slightly downwards – There was absolutely no mistaking the gender of someone this well-endowed so she was quite confident that nobody was about to interrupt them this far inside the cave. Question was, interrupt what?
"Sit down on the bed and keep your eyes on the exit," she ordered while pointing to the joke of a sleeping place lying in the corner, "Is anyone out there? Are we alone?"
"Yes… No…" Lucario hesitated. He shook his head, what was he worried about? Leaving was always an option, he was stronger after all.
"Can't sense anyone, if that's what you're wondering," he answered with curiosity as he sat down, staring with awe at the shapely feminine body in front of him.
"Good," Zoroark exclaimed as she stretched her arms and then sat down on the bed next to Lucario. Adjusting herself into the most comfortable seat possible on the lumpy mattress, she suddenly leaned her head and torso against his shoulder.
"H-Hey…" Lucario gasped as he shifted to remain steadfast against the additional weight being shoved against him.
"Shh…" Zoroark whispered as she closed her eyes. And slowly she dispelled her second illusion.
Her appearance changed once more. Lucario saw the soft, elegant body of a woman dissolve into a rugged, harrowed mess. The fur that once matched Zerobi's in smoothness stood on ends, and patches of it appeared to be missing around her eyes and mouth. Stunned into silence, Lucario could feel that the occasionally shivering hairy mass against his shoulder was as unkempt as a dead rat. This was no illusion.
"God damn Darkrai… And now Groudon… Like I didn't have a hard enough time sleeping before…" Zoroark whispered with a tired and defeated voice, "Haven't slept in months… I feel my body breaking down… Can't do anything… Anymore…"
"M… Months?" Lucario repeated with a sickening sensation rising up in his chest, one he swallowed down as he straightened himself up, "I understand, lie down while I go and guard the exit."
"No…" Zoroark whispered and placed her hand on his wrist. Lucario's eyes widened, but he stopped nonetheless. She carefully withdrew her spiky hand and hoped her gesture would not be misinterpreted as something overly affectionate. Rampant paranoia struck as she feared he would see it as a threat, like she would cut out his veins if he tried to leave.
She could hear him swallow, but it was not out of fear. Lucario was merely paraphrasing in his head what he would say to get out of this awkward situation. Zoroark's mind was worn out to the point that she could understand her thinking was illogical, yet not stop it from affecting her anyway. She had to push out thoughts of threats and danger to instill herself with a feeling of safety. Even if her body shook and hurt all over, someone she could trust was here, she could feel it, there is no possible way something bad could happen, nothing can harm her, no need to worry, so just sleep… Just sleep…
Lucario had worked out a fairly decent excuse to get up and leave as he looked down to read Zoroark's expression. To his surprise she appeared very calm, not the kind of alert confidence he was used to seeing in her. He could feel her breathing in and out at a slowing pace and noticed that while her face was not as peaceful as could be, but at the very least devoid of trouble. She was shivering a little from the cold, and he was reminded of her pathetic state when they had fled from Darkrai, suddenly amazed that she had made a recovery at all.
But amazement was not the only feeling permeating the moment as Lucario found himself audibly swallowing again. No matter how he tried, he could no longer visualize the enemy who had stabbed through his side, or the self-confident leader he had been talking to not five minutes ago. She was just a frail creature, her lithe frame leaning against him like a fallen leaf against a mighty oak, shaking incessantly as if tugged by the wind. Before he knew it he had put his arms around her, if only to keep her from flying away. One subconscious to another had reached an agreement, and Zoroark stopped shaking before finally falling asleep.
- - -
"Lazy little shit…" Silver grumbled as he trod through the permafrost with a bitter expression. Of all the Pokémon in the world, of course he'd end up with the one who refuses to stay in a Pokéball. His old Rattata slept quietly inside the contraption stuck to his belt, having gone mostly unused ever since his fateful encounter with the legendary.
"Flying makes me tired…" Jirachi mumbled in his ear while repeatedly headbutting his chin as he was practically hopping up and down in his arms. Silver grumbled again, the soft little creature moving around a lot in his sleep and having a surprisingly hard head.
"I wish you'd fly anyway," Silver muttered hopelessly, feeling like the ratio of his wishes actually coming true were something along the lines of 1 to a gazillion. That is why it came as a fairly large surprise when Jirachi left his arms and hovered in front of him.
"Good morning… Celebi…" Jirachi exclaimed with a yawn as he stretched himself. Silver picked up his head and squinted his eyes, and his mouth almost dropped when two creatures emerged from the mist, one tall and slender and one looking an awful lot like the legendary he was already familiar with.
"Celebi? Celebi?!" Silver shouted in shock as the surprisingly brown plant came into view, "Oh my god, Celebi! I knew it I knew it holy shit!"
"So, uh, which one's your old friend?" Zerobi asked with a small snicker. Celebi just shook her head, she was not in the mood for games and Jirachi had the tendency to engage in the strangest kind.
"JirachiIwishforyoutodefeatCelebi!" Silver rambled so fast he nearly choked on his own spit while pointing feverishly at the sight of eternal glory hovering just a few feet away. Jirachi flinched, but shook away his sleepiness and then struck a proud pose in midair.
"Your wish is my command, master!" Jirachi yelled with determination, letting his psychic powers build up around him. Zerobi's expression changed to one of bewilderment as she quickly took a step back, remembering all too well Lucario's description of how he was hospitalized by one hit. Celebi simply remained motionless as Jirachi fly towards her with all the powers of a true legendary along with him.
"PEW PEW PEW!" Jirachi made laser gun noises while pointing viciously at the other legendary, making a minor shuttle loop to drop some imaginary bombs, "Psychic… Smash! Psy… Strike!"
"Jirachi…" Celebi said sternly, "Knock it off."
"Aww! But it's fun!" Jirachi whined, slowly falling to the ground in disappointment. Zerobi sighed out in relief as Celebi affectionately put her hand on the younger legendary's head.
"Leave that trainer and come with me," she said bluntly, knowing better than to mince words with one such as Jirachi, "I will grow some more of those flowers you like later."
"But… Really?" Jirachi stuttered as he perked up, before twirling around in joy, "Yay!"
"No! Jirachi, don't!" Silver shouted in desperation, feeling like the situation was turning against him as the three Pokémon turned towards him. One of them looked really scary and had big claws, but he saw no reason to back down in the face of the other two.
"What about loyalty!? You told me you'd fulfill my every wish!" Silver screamed accusingly at Jirachi, hating to admit that he had gotten somewhat attached to the wish-granter over the past two years, "Don't do this, man! I wish for you to defeat Celebi!"
Jirachi was not used to being pointed at, so he looked nervously between his former master and occasional mentor before coming to the obvious conclusion.
"Sorry, Silver…" Jirachi answered with a big, innocent smile, "… But that's impossible, even for me!"
"Tch! If you think I'm going down without a fight…!" Silver growled as he thumbed the Pokéball containing his level 6 Rattata. Zerobi wondered if this was maybe her cue to step in as she let her claws clang threateningly against each other.
The effect was immediate, Silver sweating profusely despite the chilly weather. Giving one last look of betrayal at the legendary he could almost have called a friend, he opened up his backpack and used the trump card that his father Giovanni had given to him in situations just like this.
"HAHAHAHAHAAAH! SUCK ON THAT!" Silver screamed as he tossed a large object to the ground. Before their eyes stood a Pokémon, one unlike anything they had ever seen before.
"What the…!?" Zerobi exclaimed in surprise, "… Is that a… Puppet?"
"Wow! Cool!" Jirachi said loudly with an impressed tone as Zerobi hunched over to poke the doll of some undetermined Pokémon species. Celebi watched with absolutely zero interest as the vain trainer ran for his life, thinking his ploy had been a great success when they really had no intention of harming him to begin with.
"When did your leg get brown?" Jirachi asked while pointing at the one spot on Celebi's body that still needed a bit of recovery time. He then looked at Zerobi who wondered if she should even be presenting herself. She had expected some super-secret and all-powerful legendary, not some annoying brat.
"Jirachi, do you remember where the other legendaries are?" Celebi suddenly said, looking Jirachi straight in the eye, "I have a very very VERY important mission for you."
"Your wish is my command!" he responded and laughed for a few seconds before looking somewhat uncertain, "They're at the rocky water place, right?"
"Tell them that the original Groudon is raging and we intend to stop him," Celebi continued as she felt herself grow a little faint, having overworked herself trying to work out the logistics together with Zoroark, "We will gather at No Man… I mean, Cerulean City. It is a safe haven, and Zapdos should know where it is."
"Groudon… Cerulean City… Got it!" Jirachi repeated with a smile as he made a short twirl in midair, "Is Mew coming too?"
Celebi fell silent. Something wasn't right. Her powers were draining by the second. She was feeling full of sickness all over and could not stop herself from wobbling a little, much to Zerobi's distress.
"I could sense her, I was gonna go see her but I had to keep my promise to Silver!" Jirachi kept going, not undaunted but simply ignorant of subtle changes in other people, "Where is she now?"
"Sis… Thanks for coming along," Celebi murmured as Zerobi suddenly held up her arms with her claws shifted away as to catch her, "You should go back to Lucario now. We are about to have a problematic visit."
"Are you sure? I don't mind-" Zerobi started, but Celebi straightened herself up and finally located the source of the feeling. Such overwhelming negativity could only mean one thing…
"Yes! You two must depart immediately," Celebi almost shouted with panic in her voice, but forced herself to calm down and flashed a small smile to her sister, "See you again soon. Take care of yourself."
The urgency in her voice was all too apparent, to Zerobi at least as Jirachi had gone back to shooting at things with imaginary rayguns, and she quickly headed back towards Nomad's Land. Celebi and Jirachi continued talking behind her, and the last thing she heard was the little boy crying.
- - - - - -
So there he was again, Lucario thought, cradling a sleeping Pokémon in his arms. Between calming down Celebi, Zerobi and Zoroark, he was starting to think his arms were coated in a sleeping agent, which might also explain the multitude of enemies they had knocked out with relative ease.
Despite doing little but staring into the wall he was not bored, taking the opportunity to semi-sleep after two nights of dreadful dreams. But this was all just an excuse to deny how good it felt to have Zoroark's warm body pressed up against his own. He constantly had to occupy his mind with thoughts about politics and the upcoming battle to ignore the fact that Zoroark, the great leader of No Man's Land looked really, really cute sleeping like this.
It went entirely unnoticed at first, but slowly Lucario began to realize that he had been staring at a vision of Mew for a while. For the first minute or so the notion of "cute" was all that occupied his head, before in one brisk moment being replaced by "DEAD".
"You-" Lucario exclaimed as he forgot his situation, halting himself mid-shout. As expected, Mew was gone and he could feel Zoroark stirring. She opened her eyes and in four seconds she was sitting upright with an alert expression, claws at the ready. She looked around for a moment before looking at Lucario with an inquisitive gaze.
"… Sorry, false alarm. I haven't slept too well either," Lucario muttered while sheepishly scratching his head, feeling like something was missing as his shoulder and chest were becoming cold again, "Weird dreams. Keeps waking me up."
Zoroark's face went blank as she felt oddly refreshed and tired at the same time. Realizing she had somehow fallen asleep, she fell back on the bed with a heavy sigh.
"Dreams…? How I miss those…" she whispered while ignoring the pounding in her head, "Nothing but… Hallucinations… For me…"
"I have those too," Lucario admitted, hesitating for a moment before deciding to be brutally honest just to see what would come of it, "… I keep seeing Mew, and sometimes… It's so real it scares me."
A weight lifted off Lucario's heart as he revealed this, yet still he immediately regretted saying anything. But Zoroark paid it no mind, too busy thinking about her own numerous problems.
"… I'm always scared…" she whispered, feeling strangely like she was half-asleep, "… That Seif will take me… Even Mew wanted me dead… Everyone wants me dead… Cannot rest…"
She caught her breath for a moment. Saying what she really felt was having an odd effect on her, as if a bit of the darkness clouding her heart seeped out every time she opened her mouth. She decided to try it again.
"I… Demanded… A presence…" she continued as her voice faltered even more, thinking about the carnage that had taken place in Saffron, "They had no reason… To be there… To die… I just thought… It might come in handy…"
"What are you talking about?" Lucario asked, feeling strangely left out of this dialogue.
"… Pokémon revolt in Unova… Fifty nine wounded and… Twenty five dead…" Zoroark spoke as she shuddered, as if someone had opened up a valve and all the evils were being washed out of her body, "Just sent us a liaison… Asking me… Me? How to proceed next…"
"… What did you tell them?" Lucario asked grimly after a few moments of silence, finally understanding what she was saying.
"What can I tell them? I have no idea…" Zoroark continued as she swallowed hard and tried to regain her voice, "We took Cerulean City to give us grounds for protesting better treatment for Pokémon and to show that we will be oppressed no longer, but none of that is happening… All the government cares about is retaking the city…"
"… It IS their city, you know," Lucario said bluntly, trying to see things from a human's point of view, "Negotiate, tell them you'll give the city back in exchange for whatever."
"Surrender our sole leverage…? And go back to being nomads with neither voice nor any position of power…?" Zoroark snickered to herself and put a palm to her forehead, "Oh, I'm certain they'll honor any agreements we made then…"
It didn't take long for the memories to crop up in Lucario's mind. Vines covering destroyed buildings, canals full of water Pokémon and smashed buildings as far as the eye could see.
"So that's why you're rebuilding the whole infrastructure to suit Pokémon," Lucario said with a voice completely devoid of any bit of understanding or sympathy, "You're planning to keep it."
The unpleasant tone made Zoroark's eyes shot open in surprise. Just because she had tried viewing the situation from an unbiased perspective didn't mean anyone else had to. No matter how justified their desperate struggle for peace was, it could still be considered nothing but a hostile annexation if looked at from another angle. The humans didn't hate them – They had just misunderstood their intentions and immediately jumped to the worst possible conclusion.
"No, it was never anything but temporary… Celebi said that if I could speak with the legendaries, and they could only just see No Man's Land… They will help our cause," Zoroark stated while trying to maintain a dignified manner of speech, but her voice began to falter again as a spell of dizziness came over her, "And if we put an end to Groudon… Perhaps even the humans will see that we're not dangerous… We're really not… Who could think that of us…?"
"… She told you to get some sleep too, I imagine," Lucario said in a calm manner as he detected her weakness, "We can talk about this later. Sleep now."
As much as she wanted to stay awake and continue their chat, Zoroark vaguely remembered falling asleep and was not about to pass up another chance like that. Feeling her body give in once more, she slowly began to drift off as Lucario sighed.
It tasted horrible. As the air which he assumed had been inconspicuously resting inside his lungs for a short period of time caressed his tongue on the way out, it filled his mouth with the flavor of rotten fruit or revolting berries. Wondering how such a thing was possible, Lucario suddenly felt overcome by sickness. He did not have time to ponder this much longer as he heard rapid but faint footsteps dashing down the corridor towards them.
"Zerobi's coming," Lucario hazarded a guess, not sensing anyone's aura. Acting quickly to get to his feet, he realized Zoroark was already crouched down by the foot of the bed, doing a remarkably excellent impersonation of a detective searching for clues despite having been one foot in dream land just seconds prior.
"There you are!" Zerobi panted, short on breath but from fear rather than exhaustion, "We need to leave, now. Trouble's coming."
Still far away, a flying figure was approaching the nearly abandoned outpost. The legendary's intentions was a speculation to anyone but itself, but those that knew of current events could most likely make an educated guess.
Its arrival marks the beginning of the final episode.